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contents Welcome Welcome to the 2012 Festival p. 1 Welcome to the schedule in brief & thanks p. 2 2012 London Palestine Film Festival navigations: Palestinian video art, 1988-2011 p. 4 the 15th edition of the festival so far, highlights p. 6 and our 8th edition with venue partner the Barbican events for schools and young people p. 8 Since 1998, the Festival has developed as a unique cultural space for UK events in chronological order p. 9 audiences to engage with the subject of Palestine in fresh and thought- provoking ways. By showcasing work across all genres, and by emphasising festival speakers p. 31 screen talks and premieres, programmes have explored a wonderful diversity of film and video work related to Palestine. Celebrating the successes of established directors, Festivals have also aimed to surprise with less familiar content – whether rare archive works, experimental interventions, or pre- release sneak-peaks. In this respect, 2012 is perhaps our most expansive and The 2012 London Palestine Film Festival is made exciting programme to date. possible through the support of the following funding and programme partners: The 2012 Festival maps nearly a century of filmmaking in Palestine. The latest Palestinian works include Opening Night premiere, Man Without a Cell Phone by Sameh Zoabi, and psychological drama Last Days in Jerusalem by Cannes-awardee Tawfik Abu Wael. The past is well served here too with a rare chance to find Palestine in the British imperial film archives and an exclusive book talk by Ella Shohat on the history and politics of Israeli cinema. Key rediscoveries include Susan Sontag’s only documentary, Promised Lands, and a remarkable French-Maoist Palestine manifesto – L’Olivier. More contemporary work is on show with two screen events tracing new directions in Palestinian short filmmaking, and an exhibition of cutting-edge video art running alongside the film programme. Global engagements with Palestine are also focal this year, with recent work by artists including Ursula Biemann, Mike Hoolboom, and Travis Wilkerson. The programme then reaches “Beyond Palestine” with two screen events exploring regional issues and film practices through powerful works on Syria and Western Sahara.

With more than 50 works by artists from 16 countries, and with daily opportunities to discuss material with a stellar cast of guest speakers, we hope you’ll find this year’s Festival a rewarding excursion through a century of film on Palestine! LPFF on social media & web: #LPFF12 with programme changes, special offers, and forthcoming palestine film foundation @LondonPFF palestinefilm.org events, follow us on Facebook or join our email bulletin: palestinefilm.org

cover still from Eid, Saaheb Collective, 2011. cover design: piccia neri 20th april to 3rd may 20th april to 3rd may schedule in brief & thanks schedule in brief & thanks

Friday 20th april Monday 23rd april friday 27th april tuesday 1st may 19:30, Barbican cinema (opening gala) 18:15, Barbican cinema 18:15, Khalili Lecture Theatre, SOAS 18:15, the darwin Theatre, ucl Man Without a Cell Phone + Q&A “Beyond Palestine”: Syria Films & Talk: Palestinian Refugees after L’Olivier (The Olive Farmer) (see p. 9) The Long Night + Introduction the Iraq War (see p. 27) (see p. 16) Displaced Lives + Palestine in the South saturday 21st april wednesday 2nd may 20:30, Barbican cinema (see p. 24) 15:30, Barbican cinema Lacan Palestine + Q&A 18:15, the darwin Theatre, ucl sunday 29th april Man Without a Cell Phone + Yala to the (see p. 17) My Father from Haifa Moon + Q&A 15:00, Khalili Lecture Theatre, SOAS (see p. 28) (see p. 10) tuesday 24th april Sports Sunday: A Triple-Bill thursday3rd may 18:15, Barbican cinema 18:15, Barbican cinema Women in the Stadium + Inshallah “Politics as Art” Triple-Bill My Land + Eid Beijing + Free Running, Gaza 18:15, the darwin Theatre, ucl Sand Creek Equation + X-Mission (see p. 18) (see p. 25) “The Spring of Young Palestinian + End of September Women Filmmakers”: Shorts curated 20:30, Barbican cinema monday 30th april (see p. 11) “Beyond Palestine”: Western Sahara by Shashat + Panel 18:15, the darwin Theatre, ucl 20:00, Barbican cinema The Problem + Talk (see pp. 29-30) Film & Talk, The Druze in Israel: Gaza Hospital + Panel (see p. 19) Back to One’s Roots (see p. 12) wednesday 25th april (see p. 26) sunday 22nd april 18:15, Barbican cinema 16:00, Barbican cinema Promised Lands + The Beautiful Ashkenaz + The Choice + Introduction Language + Introduction (see p. 13) (see p. 20) The Festival relies upon the generosity and expertise of 18:15, Barbican cinema scores of filmmakers, artists, speakers, and partners. 20:30, Barbican cinema Their faith and practical support is invaluable. A New Palestinian Fiction: 5 Short Last Days in Jerusalem+ Diary of particular thanks goes to Festival patron Karma Nabulsi, Dramas a Male Whore and to the Cinema, Marketing, and Creative Learning teams Flower Seller + Haneen + The Well (see p. 21) at the Barbican Centre. + First Lesson + Birth (see p. 14) thursday 26th april Many individuals have given of their skills, time and effort 20:00, Barbican cinema 19:00, Khalili Lecture Theatre, SOAS to make the Festival possible. We are especially indebted British Colonial Film in Palestine + Panel Book Talk: Ella Shohat’s Israeli Cinema to Salma Abu Ayyash, Andrea Becker, Zaki Boulos, Haim (see p. 15) + Reception Bresheeth, Francis Gooding, Reem Haddad, Andy Hague, (see pp. 22-23) Dema Abu Issa, Rachel Leah Jones, Gil Leung (LUX), John Macdonald, Monica Maurer, Piccia Neri, Nekane Requejo de Ozamiz, Omar Jabary Salamanca, Rasha Salti, Emily Seed, Reem Shilleh, Samia Tabari, Tejinder Toujal (ICA), Osnat Trabelsi, Robin Yassin-Kassab, Nadia Yaqub, Mohanad Yaqubi, and Mohamad Zantout.

2 3 th th 6 april to 27 april barbican, mezzanine navigations: palestinian video art, 1988-2011

Basma Alsharif / AYREEN ANASTAS / Taysir Batniji / Shadi Habib Allah / MONA HATOUM / KhalEd Jarrar / Khalil Rabah / Jayce Salloum & Elia Suleiman / Larissa Sansour / SHARIF WAKED / Manar Zoabi The 5th annual exhibition accompanying the Festival is the first dedicated to video art. Navigations: Palestinian Video Art, 1988-2011 surveys key work by artists practicing in top left: Transit, Taysir Batniji, 2004 Palestine as well as internationally. Wilfully top right: Journey 110, KhalEd Jarrar, 2009 eclectic, the works assembled illustrate some of the breadth of conceptual, technical, and aesthetic trajectories being charted by Palestinian video artists since the 1980s, and particularly during the current era.

top: The King & The Jester, Shadi Habib Allah, 2010 centre: We Began By Measuring Distance, Basma Alsharif, 2009 bottom: Transit, Taysir Batniji, 2004

centre: In Between, Manar Zoabi, 2005-. Performance. Photograph: Issa Freij, Al Ma’mal Foundation bottom: Journey 110, Khalid Jarrar, 2009

Curated by the Palestine Film Foundation with ArtSchool Palestine.

4 5 highlights highlights

friday 20th & saturday 21st april monday 23rd & Tuesday 24th april see the film with a special introduction by Monday 30th april 19:30 & 15.30, Barbican cinema 18.15 &20.15, Barbican cinema preeminent critical theorist Ella Shohat. 18.15, UCL, Darwin Theatre Man Without a Cell Phone “Beyond Palestine” (see p. 20) Druze in Israel: Screening and talk This year’s Opening Gala (repeated on the The 2012 Festival includes two sessions Wednesday 25th april Little discussed, and rarely fully understood Saturday) is the UK Premiere of Sameh Zoabi’s exploring topics “Beyond Palestine” through 20.45, Barbican cinema beyond specialist circles, the situation of the groundbreaking film and debate. On Monday Druze minority in Israel is tackled in-depth quirky generational comedy Man Without a Last Days in Jerusalem Cell Phone. Join the award-winning Palestinian 23rd, Syrian writer Wassim Al-Adel will with this screening and talk. Bilal Yousef’s director in conversation with Festival patron introduce Hatem Ali’s searing cinematic Director Tawfik Abu Wael won the documentary Back to One’s Roots asks probing Karma Nabulsi (Friday) and film critic Carmen critique of Syria’s Assad regime, The Long International Critics Prize at Cannes with questions about the conscription of Druze to Gray (Saturday). Night (2009). Then, on Tuesday 24th attention his 2004 debut Atash/Thirst. This hotly- the Israeli army. This is followed by an expert (see pp. 9-10) turns to the Western Sahara, with Jordi Ferrer anticipated follow-up is a taut emotional drama talk on the situation of the Druze in Israel by and Pablo Vidal’s devastating exposé of the that follows one couple’s wrenching final Kais Firro of Haifa University. saturday 21st april savage Moroccan occupation, The Problem days as they prepare to leave Jerusalem for (see p. 26) 20.00, Barbican cinema (2010), followed by a crucial screen talk. Paris. Shown with Abu Wael’s rarely-seen and Gaza Hospital (see p. 16 & p. 19) controversial 2001 short, Diary of a Thursday 3rd May Male Whore. Co-presented with Medical Aid for Palestinians 18.15, UCL, Darwin Theatre monday 23rd april (see p. 21) (MAP) and marking the 30th anniversary of 20.30, Barbican cinema The Spring of Young Palestinian the fall of Beirut, this masterly documentary Lacan Palestine thursday 26th april Women Filmmakers chronicling the rise and fall of the PLO’s 19.00, soas, klt The Festival closes with an event focusing on primary medical facility in Lebanon is followed If you like your cinema epic, complex, Book Talk – Ella Shohat’s Israeli Cinema the rise of young Palestinian women filmmakers. by a panel debate involving director Marco and overall spectacular, then this UK Guest curated by Palestinian women’s film NGO Pasquini, revolutionary filmmaker Monica Premiere of award-winning Canadian artist Ella Shohat is Professor of Cultural Studies and Shashat, and showcasing a series of shorts made Maurer, and veteran Gaza Hospital surgeon Dr Mike Hoolboom’s Lacan Palestine is for you. Middle Eastern studies at New York University as a result of Shashat training services, films Ang Swee Chai. Painstakingly fused from appropriated footage, and the author of innumerable texts extending (ca. 30 min total) will be followed by a panel on it re-imagines Palestine via the celluloid our critical understanding of Eurocentrism, (see p. 12) women’s filmmaking in Palestine and beyond record as a space of permanent colonial- Orientalism, Postcolonialism, transnationalism, with Shashat director Alia Arasoughly, Iraqi psychological projections. Join the artist to and diasporic cultures. Her Israeli Cinema: sunday 22nd april filmmaker Maysoon Pachachi, and Palestinian 20.00, Barbican cinema discuss (and maybe partly decipher) this East/West and the Politics of Representation director Laila Abbas. extraordinary accomplishment. is a seminal work of film criticism and an British Colonial Film Archives (see pp. 29-30) (see p. 17) unsurpassed treatment of Zionist visual Join a distinguished panel of artists and cultures. Now in a new and updated edition, scholars for this unprecedented tour through Wednesday 25th april Prof. Shohat’s talk will be illustrated with clips the moving image archives of the British 18.15, Barbican cinema and followed by a discussion with dissident colonial period in Palestine, with excerpts Promised Lands Israeli filmmaker Eyal Sivan. A drinks reception and pieces from 1917 to 1947. Presented in and book signing will follow the talk. partnership with the Colonial Film project The 20th Century’s most notable critic of the (colonialfilm.org.uk) and with panellists photographic arts made just one documentary (see pp. 22-23) including Kamal Aljafari, Francis Gooding, Ilan film: Susan Sontag’s Promised Lands is a Pappe, and Christopher Pinney. striking meditation on Zionism, militarism, (see p. 15) and trauma, made in the immediate aftermath of the October 1973 war and banned on release by the Israeli censor. This is a rare chance to

6 7 th friday 20 april barbican, cinema 1 manevents without for schools a cell phone and young people manopening without gala a cell phone schools, films & fun man without a cell phone uk premiere

This year’s programme includes two events Date: 20th April tailored for younger audiences. The first, films & fun Venue: Barbican, Cinema 1 with the Barbican Centre’s Creative Learning Time: 19:30 Department, is designed for UK school pupils Date: Sunday 29th April (Key Stage 2). The second, with the Palestinian Venue: SOAS, Russel Square School in London, is aimed at Palestinian and Time: 11.00 Director: Sameh Zoabi Arabic-speaking (as well as Arabic-learning) Year: 2011 youngsters aged 10 to 15. Both events require In partnership with Duration: 78 min the Palestinian School in London advance registration. This UK Premiere of quirky new Palestinian A talking donkey, an “egg hunt”, and a magic comedy Man Without a Cell Phone opens the telescope! A series of fun shorts for young schools’ screening 2012 London Palestine Film Festival. Twenty- people, plus some tricky quizzes and exciting something Palestinian-Israeli slacker Jawdat rd activities. Date: Monday 23 April wants to have fun with his friends, chat on Venue: Barbican Centre Suitable for ages 10 to 15. his mobile and find love. Instead he navigates Time: 10:30 To book, email names, ages, and a contact unconvincing dates and wrestles with his details to: [email protected] Hebrew college entrance exam. Meanwhile, Yellow Mums and other stories: by 5pm Thursday 26th April. his curmudgeonly olive-farming father, Salem, Three great short films full of dreams, is determined to draw Jawdat and his whole father and son on a collision course. deliberations, and joys, giving insight into community into a struggle against an Israeli cell Sameh Zoabi’s (Be Quiet, 2006) debut feature Palestinian culture and life. Hosted by film phone mast he believes is poisoning the villagers is a rare and rewarding film – a warm-hearted expert and educator Reza Ben Gajra. with radiation. Salem’s war against the antenna comedy that moves slyly between political satire soon disrupts Jawdat’s own phone reception, and generational drama. Suitable for Key Stage 2 pupils. £1 per pupil. Accompanying teachers go free. jeopardising his dating prospects and setting Contact [email protected] for details and to book. Followed by a Q&A with director Sameh Zoabi, chaired by Festival patron Karma Nabulsi

8 9 st st saturday 21 april barbican, cinema 1 saturday 21 april barbican, cinema 1 man without a cell phone politics as art: a triple bill man without a cell phone repeat of opening gala event sand creek equation, x-mission, end of september

Date: 21st April Date: 21st April Venue: Barbican, Cinema 1 Venue: Barbican, Cinema 1 end of september Time: 15:30 Time: 18:15 Director: Sama Alshaibi & Ala’ Younis Three stylish recent works by renowned (courtesy of Selma Feriani Gallery, London) Director: Sameh Zoabi international artists. With Sand Creek Equation, Year: 2010 Year: 2011 US-based political auteur Travis Wilkerson (An Duration: 16min Duration: 78min Injury to One, 2002; Who Killed Cock Robin? 2005) employs a deceptively poetic style to Twenty-something Palestinian-Israeli slacker with radiation. Salem’s war against the antenna suggest terrible parallels link the 2008-9 war on Jawdat wants to have fun with his friends, soon disrupts Jawdat’s own phone reception, the Gaza Strip to the 1864 massacre of Native chat on his mobile and find love. Instead he jeopardising his dating prospects and setting Americans at Sand Creek, Colorado. Ursula navigates unconvincing dates and wrestles with father and son on a collision course. Biemann’s X-Mission videoessay asks after his Hebrew college entrance exam. Meanwhile, the logic of the Palestinian refugee camp in his curmudgeonly olive-farming father, Salem, Sameh Zoabi’s (Be Quiet, 2006) debut feature our times, combining found and documentary is determined to draw Jawdat and his whole is a rare and rewarding film – a warm-hearted footage while testing the ideas of Agamben, community into struggle against an Israeli cell comedy that moves slyly between political satire Benjamin, Arendt and others concerned with phone mast he believes is poisoning the villagers and generational drama. “the state of exception”. In magic realist drama End of September, Sama Alshaibi and Ala’ Younis imagine a Palestinian fedai (fighter) yala to the moon returning to her liberated homeland to face a Yala to the Moon is a delightful short that series of mysterious occurrences that leave her Director: Suhel Nafar & Jacqueline Reem Salloum follows Aseel, a young girl who peddles CDs on questioning not just where, but also when, she Year: 2011 the streets of the West Bank and uses her vivid has arrived. Duration: 7min imagination to magically remake the world around her. x-mission sand creek equation uk premiere Director: Ursula Biemann Director: Travis Wilkerson Year: 2008 Year: 2011 Duration: 40min Duration: 25min

Followed by a Q&A with director Sameh Zoabi, chaired by Carmen Gray

10 11 st saturday 21 april barbican, cinema 1 sunday 22nd april barbican, cinema 1 30 years since the siege of beirut gaza hospital uk premiere ashkenaz + introduction

st nd cynicism. But the paradox of whiteness in Israel Date: 21 April in partnership with map Date: 22 April Venue: Barbican, Cinema 1 Venue: Barbican, Cinema 1 is that Ashkenazim aren’t exactly “white folks” Time: 20:00 Time: 16:00 historically. A story that begins in the Rhineland and ends in the holy land (or is it the other way around?), Ashkenaz looks at whiteness in Israel Director: Marco Pasquini Director: Rachel Leah Jones and wonders: How did the “Others” of Europe Year: 2009 Year: 2007 become the “Europe” of the others?” Duration: 84min Duration: 72min With an introduction by award-winning journalist In the 1970s, Beirut’s Gaza Hospital was its celebrated foundation to its destruction and Celebrated by critical theorist Ella Shohat for and author Rachel Shabi. established as the main medical services centre subsequent transformation from a medical offering an “audaciously lucid gaze at the ironic run by the PLO in Lebanon. Today, the shell of centre to a vertical refugee camp. twists of history”, Ashkenaz is an enthralling doc- the war-scarred building is home to hundreds essay on the often-curious making of Zionism’s the choice of Palestinian refugee families. Due to its Presented in partnership with MAP. Followed by hegemonic European elites. The director’s wry location at the crossroads between Sabra and a panel chaired by MAP campaigns officer James wit and incisive interviews compose a revealing Shatila refugee camps, this ten-storey structure Denselow, with the participation of director portrait of this complex political and cultural Director: Yasin Erik Bognar has witnessed uncountable key episodes in Marco Pasquini, revolutionary filmmaker identity. Leah Jones (500 Dunam on the Moon, Year: 2011 Palestinian history. Drawing on fascinating Monica Maurer (who filmed in the hospital 2002) has said of the film’s subject matter: Duration: 9min archive film from the hospital’s past, and on between 1978 and 1982), and Dr Swee Ang, who “Ashkenazim—Jews of European origin—are interviews with hospital staff, Pasquini’s doc worked in Gaza Hospital until 1982. Israel’s “white folks.” And like most white folks The Choice is a beguiling short set in besieged tells the profound story of Gaza Hospital – from in a multicultural society, they see themselves Ramallah, where a father and daughter are as the social norm and don’t think of themselves compelled to choose how they will deal with in racial or ethnic terms because by now, “aren’t grief in the face of tragedy. we all Israeli?” Yiddish has been replaced with Hebrew, exile with occupation, the shtetl with the kibbutz and old-fashioned irony with postmodern

with an introduction by rachel shabi

Followed by a panel discussion. Commemorative Event Co-Presented With MAP (Medical Aid for Palestinians)

12 13 nd nd sunday 22 april barbican, cinema 1 sunday 22 april barbican, cinema 1 new palestinian fiction: 5 short dramas british colonial film in Palestine 1917-1947 flower seller, first lesson, haneen, the well, birth 1917-1947: moving images from the imperial archives

Date: 22nd April Date: 22nd April Venue: Barbican, Cinema 1 Venue: Barbican, Cinema 1 Time: 18:15 Time: 20:00 Film output in the West Bank has been style to tell the story of a father and son seeking A selection of amateur, government and increasing in recent years. This collection of new refuge in 1948. Bittersweet comedy First Lesson Director: Various newsreel footage from the era of British rule dramas showcases work from emerging and follows Salma as she swaps Palestine for Paris, Year: 1917-1947 established directors there today. Jadallah’s (The only to find unexpected challenges await her Duration: 80min (total) Shooter, 2007) Flower Seller is a slick thriller built there. And Birth by Dima Abu Ghoush (Good around collaboration and betrayal. Haneen is a Morning Qalqilya, 2004, My Palestine, 2007) Though the footage is seldom seen and only now lushly filmed allegory on the themes of nostalgia unfolds in a Palestinian village during the 1970s, becoming accessible to researchers, Britain’s and longing. In period piece The Well, Habash where a daughter is forced to face her fears to colonial rule in Palestine was closely recorded (Fatenah, 2009) eschews his previous animation help her heavily pregnant mother. on film. This collaboration with the Colonial Film project is an unique opportunity to explore flower seller haneen this remarkable visual record in the company uk premiere uk premiere of preeminent scholars and artists. A selection of works spanning the period by amateur and Director: Ihab Jadallah Director: Ossama Bawardi professional filmmakers will be shown: From Year: 2011 Year: 2011 choreographed images of Allenby’s triumphant Duration: 17min Duration: 18min march into Jerusalem in 1917 (a “Christmas present for the British nation”), via “home FLOWER SELLER HANEEN movies” by troops surged into Palestine for the counterinsurgency during the Arab Revolt of the 1930s, to propaganda pieces aimed at glossing the chaotic British withdrawal of 1947-8.

Followed by a panel on empire and film in Palestine and beyond with Kamal Aljafari, Francis Gooding, Ilan Pappe, Christopher Pinney

These extraordinary films, several of which are silent, will be accompanied by commentary first lesson the well from Francis Gooding of the Colonial Film uk premiere uk premiere project, who will also give a presentation on Director: Areen Omari Director: Ahmad Habash the story behind the 1947 Colonial Office work Year: 2010 Year: 2011 Portrait of Palestine. Francis will then join a Duration: 15min Duration: 15min panel on colonial film archives with artist and filmmaker Kamal Aljafari (Port of Memory, 2009), historian Ilan Pappe, and anthropologist first lesson birth Christopher Pinney. uk premiere Co-presented with the Colonial Film project Director: Dima Abu Ghoush (colonialfilm.org.uk) Year: 2011 Duration: 9min

14 15 rd rd monday 23 april barbican, cinema 1 monday 23 april barbican, cinema 1 beyond palestine #1: Syria the long night + introduction lacan palestine uk premiere Date: 23rdApril Date: 23rdApril Venue: Barbican, Cinema 1 Venue: Barbican, Cinema 1 Time: 18:15 Time: 20:30

Director: Hatem Ali Director: Mike Hoolboom Year: 2009 Year: 2012 Duration: 93min Duration: 70min

While news of atrocities continues to emerge Hatem Ali is the latest of a number of Syrian A mind-boggling achievement by Canadian and fears of a lengthy civil war mount, this event directors to generate potent critical cinema artist Mike Hoolboom, who has been called celebrates the long and creative history of Syrian while navigating at the limits of artistic freedom “the greatest found-footage master of the era”. cultural opposition to the Assad regime(s) with a in Syria. An introduction to the film by Syrian Skilfully assembled from existing film material, screening of Hatem Ali’s potent drama The Long blogger and political activist Wassim Al-Adel Hoolboom conjures visual allegories and cut-up Night. Barred in Syria itself, the film follows will elaborate on this aspect of Syrian art counter-narratives around a notion of Palestine three political prisoners on the last night before activism and offer insights into ongoing events as “a land that is not a land”. Mining a wealth of their release after two decades in a regime jail. in the country. material from TV news, documentary, fiction, As the fate that each prisoner’s family has faced and fantasy film,Lacan Palestine is a visual frequently challenging, the film intersperses as a result of their imprisonment is unveiled roller-coaster, with Hoolboom using cinema its newsreels, desert fantasias, and historic over the course of Haitham Hakki’s compelling to suggest Palestine as a place of recurring encounters with psychoanalytic ruminations on script, The Long Night exposes the scope of the psychological-colonial projection – a space subjects from patricide to John Coltrane, and damage inflicted by the political regime, not just whose conquest is here spectacularly relived in from the elusive nature of joy to what Hoolboom on its immediate victims and their families, but celluloid waves of armed crusaders, legionnaires, calls the “loveless love story” starring Moses, throughout Syrian society. Mongol horsemen, biplanes, and machine guns. Abraham, and Jacques Lacan. Dizzying in its But as the title suggests, this is more than a mere technical and conceptual density, Lacan Palestine collage. Layered, often deeply personal, and is truly incomparable cinema. with an introduction by wassim al-adel

Followed by a Q&A with Director Mike Hoolboom

16 17 th th tuesday 24 april barbican, cinema 1 tuesday 24 april barbican, cinema 1 beyond palestine #2: western sahara my land the problem: Testimony of the Saharawi People

Date: 24th April Jewish Israelis who live on their lands. After Date: 24thApril Venue: Barbican, Cinema 1 recording testimonies (personal, historical, and Venue: Barbican, Cinema 1 Time: 18:15 political) by Palestinians in the camps of the Time: 20:30 region, Ayouch visits their homes in present-day Followed by a screen talk Israel, testing the attitudes of today’s inhabitants Director: Nabil Ayouch toward the land’s Palestinian past and owners. Directors: Jordi Ferrer& Pablo Vidal Year: 2010 In a bold, at moments unsettling intervention Year: 2010 Duration: 85min Ayouch then stages a series of virtual Duration: 82min encounters, exposing the current inhabitants In 2000, Moroccan director Nabil Ayouch to intimate video testimony from the refugees Nearly five years in the making, this gripping doc re-colonising the territory and disregarding UN delivered a signal work of Arab social cinema whose homes they now occupy... My Land is a lifts the lid on what has been termed “Africa’s last calls for a referendum on self-determination. with the multi-award-winning Ali Zoua: Prince refreshingly original work aimed at the very core colony”. Known as The Spanish Sahara under Morocco’s occupation, and the Saharawi people’s of the Streets – a drama crafted with the street of the Palestine/Israel conflict. colonization from 1885 to 1975, when Spain left resistance to it, continues to this day. While the children of Casablanca and celebrated by the the Western Sahara in 1975, Morocco began its Polisaro Front heads the political and armed San Francisco Chronicle as “cinematic magic”. occupation with the so-called “Green March”, struggle from without, those living under A decade on, Ayouch’s documentary My Land occupation face draconian suppression finds him adopting an equally radical approach of their cultural identity. As even uttering to his subject: Palestinian refugees and the the name “Western Sahara” or the word “referendum” can incur terrible recriminations, most refer to the situation simply as “The Problem”. This multi- award-winning doc casts urgent light on this forgotten colonial conflict, on the war being waged against the Saharawi nation’s political and cultural identity, and on the plight and courage of those who dare to resist.

The Problem will be followed by a screen talk addressing current developments in the Saharawi struggle for self- determination.

eid

Director: Saaheb Collective Year: 2011 Duration: 9min

The eponymous Eid is an artist who boasts a gift for transforming scrap materials. This short uses stop-motion animation and interviews to revel in Eid’s creative process.

18 19 th th wednesday 25 april barbican, cinema 1 wednesday 25 april barbican, cinema 1 Susan Sontag’s promised lands + introduction last days in jerusalem last night at the barbican

Date: 25th April Date: 24thApril Abu Wael won the 2004 Cannes International Venue: Barbican, Cinema 1 Venue: Barbican, Cinema 1 Critics Prize with his debut feature, Atash Time: 18:15 Time: 20:45 (Thirst) – a work that prompted Sight & Sound to declare him “the most exciting Arab Director: Susan Sontag Director: Tawfik Abu Wael filmmaker to have emerged in more than a Year: 1974 With an introduction by Ella Shohat Year: 2011 decade”. This greatly anticipated follow-up Duration: 87min Duration: 84min tells the story of Nour and Iyad, a Palestinian couple living in East Jerusalem, preparing to move to Paris. He is a surgeon Sontag’s sole documentary, Promised Lands was and suffering at this moment raises fascinating at the top of his game; she an filmed in the aftermath of the October 1973 war questions.. Against a backdrop of post-war actress from a well-to-do family. and initially banned by Israeli censors wary of anomie and anti-Arab sentiment, her film traces When news of an accident “damaging the country’s morale”’. Recently re- fault lines in a militarised society, combining forces Iyad to return to work released after being inexplicably forgotten, this observational meditations (landscapes, military and delay their departure, Nour utterly unique film marks a critical moment in patrols, cinemas, cemeteries, psychiatric wards, senses abandonment and starts Zionist society, and in Sontag’s thinking on images national museums) with far-ranging interviews to question their move as well as and power. A prominent public intellectual, (with author Yoram Kaniuk and physicist their marriage, gradually realising Sontag was at this time penning her celebrated Yuval Ne’eman). how attached she is to essays On Photography, stressing the medium’s all that she is about to leave acquisitive, objectifying effects. That she chose to Promised Lands will be introduced by film behind. An intimate psychological turn her own lens onto images of far-away wars scholar and critical theorist Ella Shohat. drama, Abu Wael’s latest tenderly depicts the couple’s wrenching final days, tearing themselves away from home, from the familiar, and even from each other.

after tonight, Festival continues at SOAS & UCL venues

diary of a male whore

Director: Tawfik Abu Wael Year: 2001 Duration: 14min

Diary of a Male Whore was first conceived as a university project during Abu Wael’s training, the beautiful language The Beautiful Language by Moroccan visual but was rejected for being a “low film” with artist Mounir Fatmi examines racist violence and excessive violence. Completed independently, it Director: Mounir Fatmi empire by digitally manipulating fragments from tells of a young Palestinian refugee working as a Year: 2010 Truffaut’s 1970 L’Enfant Sauvage – in which an prostitute in Tel Aviv. Beautifully shot and bold Duration: 17min “uncivilized” child is studied and “civilized” by an of content, Diary of a Male Whore prompted 18th Century aristocratic doctor. both outrage and plaudits on release. 20 21 th thursday 26 april SOAS, Khalili Lecture Theatre book talk and reception: ella shoat israeli cinema east/west and the politics of representation

Date: 26th April Venue: SOAS, Khalili Lecture Theatre “Shohat’s Israeli Cinema is a tour-de-force. Not only is it Time: 19:00 theoretically sophisticated, it is also deeply rooted in the changing politics and perceptions of the Israeli predicament...” Originally published in 1989, Ella Shohat’s then be joined in conversation by renowned – Edward Said Israeli Cinema: East/West and the Politics of Israeli documentary filmmaker Eyal Sivan Jaffa:( Representation is a seminal text of cinema The Orange’s Clockwork, 2010). history and cultural criticism – a pan-historical account of the ways in which film practices After the talk, audiences are invited to join Ella Habiba Shohat is Professor of Cultural have mediated, broadcast, or disrupted Zionist the speakers for a drinks reception and book- Studies and Middle Eastern studies at New York politics and cultures over a century. Shohat’s signing. University. Since the 1980s, she has lectured groundbreaking work has now been updated and written extensively on Eurocentrism, and reissued, complete with a powerful new Copies of the new edition of Israeli Cinema: Orientalism, Postcolonialism, transnationalism, postscript relating the original work to key East/West and the Politics of Representation will and diasporic cultures. developments in the cinemas of Palestine/Israel be available at a discounted rate throughout the since its issue. 2012 London Palestine Film Festival. Please ask a In particular, her work focuses on Orientalism member of the Festival team. in American popular culture, analogies between In this exclusive UK appearance, Ella Shohat the representation of Arabs in Hollywood and will discuss key themes from the book, in Israeli cinema, links between images of illustrating these with short film clips. She will Native Americans and Palestinians on the one hand, and Blacks and Arab-Jews/Mizrahim on the other.

Ella Shohat’s many publications include a collected volume of key articles, Taboo Memories, Diasporic Voices (2006); She is the editor of Talking Visions: Multicultural Feminism in a Transnational Age (1998); and, with Robert Stam, Unthinking Eurocentrism (1994); Multiculturalism, Postcoloniality and Transnational Media (2003); Flagging Patriotism: Crises of Narcissism and Anti- Americanism (2007); and Race in Translation: Culture Wars around the Postcolonial Atlantic (2012).

“A new edition of Israeli Cinema with a substantial postscript that reflects on the book’s initial reception and points to exciting current trends in the cinematic Ella Shohat’s talk will be accompanied by film clips & followed representation of Israel and Palestine.” by a conversation with Israeli documentarist Eyal Sivan – sight & sound

22 23 th th friday 27 april SOAS, Khalili Lecture Theatre sunday 29 april SOAS, Khalili Lecture Theatre New Exiles: Films & Talk By Abbas Shiblak lastsports days sunday: in jerusalem palestinian refugees after the iraq war an olympic year triple bill

Date: 27th April Date: 29thApril Venue: SOAS, Khalili Lecture Theatre Venue: SOAS, Khalili Lecture Theatre Time: 18:15 Time: 15:00

The Palestine Film Festival marks London’s 2012 a candid portrait of young athletes and their palestine in the south displaced lives Olympic year with three terrific docs celebrating dreams as they leave their homes in Palestine for uk premiere uk premiere Palestine’s athletes and sports people. Sawsan the first time to prepare for the Games at training Qaoud’s Women in the Stadium tells the stories facilities thousands of miles away in unfamiliar Director: Ana Maria Hurtado Director: João Marcelo Gomes of four members of the Palestinian Women’s Chinese surrounds. Mohammed and Abed are the Year: 2011 Year: 2010 National Football Team as they navigate the core of the Gaza Parkour Team – their pioneering Duration: 52min Duration: 14min physical and societal obstacles placed in the way of this high-tempo urban gymnastic sport in Gaza of success. The Palestinian delegation to the 2008 is the subject of George Azar and Mariam Shahin’s Following the fall of Saddam Hussein, thousands João Marcelo Gomes’s short doc Displaced Beijing Olympics is the subject of Inshallah Beijing, Free Running, Gaza. of Palestinian refugees living in Iraq were Lives is a tender portrait of Faez Abbas and displaced again into a no-man’s-land on the Salha Nasser, a couple and two of some 4,000 Syrian border. After years in this new-found Palestinians for whom the Iraq war led to Brazil. women in the stadium free running, gaza limbo, some ultimately journeyed with their uk premiere families to Brazil or Chile, where they were Director: Sawsan Qaoud Director: George Azar & Mariam Shahin offered residence. Ana Maria Hurtado’s Palestine Year: 2011 Year: 2011 in the South follows one such group to Chile, Duration: 52min Duration: 25min where they are welcomed to a small town with a Palestinian population descended from migrants reaching the country a century earlier. For all the hospitality of the town, opportunities are scant and disillusionment sets in amongst some new arrivals...

DOCUMENTARY DOUBLE-BILL FOLLOWED BY A TALK BY ABBAS SHIBLAK ON PALESTINIAN REFUGEES inshallah beijing

Director: Francesco Cannito & Luca Cusani Year: 2008 Duration: 54min

24 25 th st monday 30 april UCL, Darwin Theatre tuesday 1 may UCL, Darwin Theatre the druze in israel: film & talk by kais firro subversive film present: back to one’s roots uk premiere L’olivier (the olive farmer)

th st Co-presented Date: 30 April Date: 1 May with Subversive Film Ltd Venue: UCL, Darwin Theatre Venue: UCL , Darwin Theatre Time: 18:15 Time: 18:15

Director: Bilal Yousef Director: Groupe Cinéma Vincennes Year: 2009 Year: 1976 Duration: 47min Duration: 92min

Just as their form of Islam is often shrouded joining a Special Forces Unit is shattered upon The Groupe Cinéma Vincennes was a Parisian notable for the many grim continuities it reveals in mystery, the political and cultural life of the the death of his two brothers as they serve in Maoist collective formed after 1968 and between 1975 and today – home demolitions, Druze in Israel today is frequently ignored or the army. When Yaman nonetheless insists on comprised of Ali Akika, Guy Chapoullie, Serge imprisonment without trial, settlement only vaguely understood. Most know that the joining the army, he is dispatched to work in Le Péron, Jean Narboni, Dominique Villain, and construction, resource theft, and diplomatic Druze are Palestinian Muslims who serve in the an Israeli prison holding Palestinian and Arab Danièle Dubroux. Their L’Olivier emerged in acquiescence... Israeli army. Yet little is heard of the divisions activists. Contact with these political prisoners response to a sense that French public support amongst the Druze this has engendered, or the leads him to re-evaluate his relationship with for the Palestinian struggle was diminishing L’Olivier was recently “re-discovered” resistance that has been mounted to Zionism the Israeli army and reflect on his identity as a following the 1972 Munich atrocity. As a work of by Subversive Film Ltd, a research and by Druze. This event is a rare chance to explore Palestinian Druze. “activist” cinema, the 16mm doc they went on to production body specialising in militant these questions with leading expert Kais make is peerless. Cannily structured to convey cinemas from the 1960s to the 1980s. This first Firro following a screening of Bilal Yousef’s Following the film, Laleh Khalili will chair a talk the Palestinian story and to highlight the (then) UK presentation will involve newly prepared documentary on the relationship between the on the history and circumstances of Druze in present state of the struggle, the film is at the English subtitles being displayed below the Druze and the Israeli army. Israel by Kais Firro, author of The Druzes in the same time a rousing call for global revolutionary existing French. Jewish State (1999). solidarities and, particularly, for European Back to One’s Roots follows Yaman, a Druze political engagements. Revisited today, L’Olivier citizen in the north of Israel. His dream of is notable for the formal cinematic qualities it fuses with its political messaging. It is also followed by a talk ON THE DRUZE IN ISRAEL BY KAIS FIRRO

26 27 nd rd wednesday 2 may UCL, Darwin Theatre thursday 3 may UCL, Darwin Theatre closing night event my father from haifa the spring of young palestinian women filmmakers guest-curated by shashat Date: 2nd May Date: 3rd May shashat.org Venue: UCL, Darwin Theatre Venue: UCL , Darwin Theatre Time: 18:15 Time: 18:15

Director: Omar Shargawi The only Palestinian NGO dedicated to women’s Shashat director Alia Arasoughly will introduce Year: 2009 cinema, since 2005 Shashat has provided an six distinctive pieces (totalling 32 minutes): Duration: 52min expansive programme of capacity-building and If U Say Yes or If U Say No by Layali Kilani exhibition in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. (2008); Jerusalem on the Messenger by Amani Believing in the creative, developmental, and Al-Sarahnah (2009); The Sister and her Brother In 1948, Munir Shargawi was a young man living documents his determined bid to persuade his educational value of cinema, the organisation’s by Omaima Hamouri and Michael Krotkiewski in Haifa. After he and his family were exiled father to revisit his hometown. Stylishly shot workshops and production services encourage (2010); Girls and the Sea by Taghreed El-Azza during the expulsions of the Nakba, Munir and edited, this is a charged intimate portrait aspiring filmmakers to take their place in (2010); Just Forbidden by Fadya Salah Aldeen wandered the world like many Palestinians of father and son under immense psychological Palestine’s nascent film industry. (2011); and Kamkamah by Areej Abu Eid and before finally settling in Copenhagen. A and emotional pressure. While Shargawi Eslam Alayan (2011). Afterward, Alia will generation on, his son Omar is a documentary acknowledges that the memories his father This closing night event samples shorts made present her own 2006 short, The Clothesline. filmmaker, curious for years about his father’s is being asked to revisit are often painful, he through Shashat workshops from 2008-2011. past, and particularly his Haifa childhood – of avoids undue sentimentalism to deliver what is which Munir rarely speaks. In his multi-award- a profound meditation on memory and healing, continued overleaf winning My Father From Haifa, Omar Shargawi family and distance.

Shorts by young women filmmakers, followed by panel discussion.

28 29 continued from overleaf

rd thursday 3 may UCL, Darwin Theatre closing night event festival speakers the spring of young palestinian women filmmakers brief biographies

The film screenings will be followed by a presented with the support of Laila Abbas left a managerial career at Ang Swee Chai was born in Malaysia panel chaired by Iraqi filmmaker and cinema the international arab charity (iac) the Arab Radio & Television network to and raised in Singapore. Imprisoned for her NGO-founder Maysoon Pachachi, with the pursue filmmaking. She was awarded a Said political affinities, she moved to the UK, participation of Shashat’s director Arasoughly Foundation scholarship for an MA in film becoming the first female orthopaedic surgeon and filmmaker Laila Abbas. and television production at Royal Holloway consultant at St Barts, London. With the 1982 University and is now working on her invasion of Lebanon, she moved to Beirut to first feature. She has written and directed give medical support for Palestinian civilians, several shorts, including Visa (2010), Fruity becoming a witness to the Sabra and Shatilla Dreams (2011), and 5 Cups & A Cup (2012). massacre. She co-founded the British charity (see pp. 29-30) Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), and published From Beirut to Jerusalem (1989) a Wassim Al-Adel is a London-based Syrian memoir of her time in Beirut. Dr Ang continues commentator who has been writing and to work with Palestinian medical services and is blogging on Middle Eastern affairs since 2006. a recipient of the “Star of Palestine”, the highest His work, on Syria and elsewhere, can be honour bestowed by the PLO for services to the followed on his blog: maysaloon.org. (see p. 16) Palestinian people. (see p. 12)

Kamal Aljafari is a graduate of the Academy James Denselow is Communications and of Media Arts, Cologne. His award-winning Advocacy officer for Medical Aid for Palestinians film work includesThe Roof (2006) and Port of (MAP). He has worked with MAP for four Memory (2009). Until 2010, he was Benjamin years and is the author of Terminal Decline?: White Whitney Fellow at Harvard University, Palestinian Refugee Health in Lebanon (2011). where he worked on film and on the photography (see p. 12) project Cinematic Occupation (forthcoming in a book of the same title). He has taught film at The Gareth Evans is a curator, editor, and New School, New York, and is currently head of writer. He edited the international moving image the directing programme at the German Film and journal Vertigo and now co-edits the cross arts Television Academy, Berlin. (see pp. 15) magazine Artesian. Gareth has curated many film seasons (notably on Portuguese, Roma, Armenian Shorts by young women filmmakers, Alia Arasoughly is a sociologist of culture, cinemas) and the major 2008 programme All followed by panel discussion. filmmaker, and curator. She is director of Power to the Imagination! 1968 and Its Legacies. He Shashat, a cinema NGO based in Ramallah, and is co-director of Artevents, a creative platform and of Shashat’s annual Women’s Film Festival. She production framework, recently co-producing the translated and edited Screens of Life: Critical highly-regarded Patience (After Sebald), by Grant Film Writing from the Arab World (1996), Gee (2012). and co-edited Strategies of Representation, Conditions of Production: Palestinian Kais Firro is Professor of Middle Eastern Women Filmmakers (2011). She has lectured History at the University of Haifa. He has internationally on Arab cinemas and served as lectured and written extensively on social a media development consultant and trainer for and political aspects of Druze life in Israel international organizations. (see pp. 29-30) and beyond, with key publications including

30 31 festival speakers festival speakers brief biographies brief biographies

A History of the Druzes (1992) and The Druzes University of London. In addition to numerous Water (2002), along with Return to the Land College London. His research interests cover in the Jewish State (1999). His other work articles and chapters on topics ranging from of Wonders (2004) covering her return to the art and visual cultures of South Asia, with has focused on Lebanese political history Palestinian cybercultures to the gendered post-Saddam Iraq, and Our Feelings Took The a focus on the history of photography and and includes his study Inventing Lebanon: practices of counterinsurgencies, she is the Pictures: Open Shutters Iraq (2009). She has chromolithography in India. He has written Nationalism and State under the Mandate author of Heroes and Martyrs of Palestine: The taught film directing and editing in the UK and widely on art, aesthetics, technology, and (2002). (see p. 26) Politics of National Commemoration (2007), Middle East and in 2004 co-founded a free film empire; major publications include Photos and, most recently, the co-editor (with Jillian training initiative in Baghdad. Maysoon is now of the Gods: The Printed Image and Political Francis Gooding is director of the MA in Schwedler) of Policing and Prisons in the Middle developing a fiction feature to be shot in Iraq. Struggle in India (2004), The Coming of Film Curating at the London Consortium. He East: Formations of Coercion (2010). (see p. 26) (see pp. 29-30) Photography in India (2008), and the co-edited worked as an author and researcher on the volume (with Nicolas Peterson) Photography’s Colonial Film: Images of the British Empire Monica Maurer is a German-born Ilan Pappe is Professor of History and Director Other Histories (2003). (see p. 15) project (colonialfilm.org.uk), focusing on filmmaker who worked with the Palestine Film of the European Centre for Palestine Studies at amateur film, missionary film, and films of Unit of the 1970s on militant and information the University of Exeter. A prolific author, in 2011 Rachel Shabi has written extensively Palestine and Aden. He has written widely on films alongside Samir Nimr, Mustafa Abu Ali, alone he published three book-length works: Gaza on the Israel-Palestine conflict and wider art, music and film, is a contributing editor Khadijeh Habashneh, and others. Her films in Crisis (with Noam Chomsky), The Husaynis: Middle East for a variety of international to Critical Quarterly, and the author of Black include groundbreaking accounts of the PLO’s The Rise and Fall of a Palestinian Dynasty, and The media including the Guardian, The Times, The Light: Myth and Meaning in Modern Painting medical and social services such as Palestine Forgotten Palestinians: A History of the Palestinians Independent, Aljazeera English, Foreign Policy (2009). (see p. 15) Red Crescent Service (1979), and key works in Israel. Previous books include A History of and The National (UAE). Her award-winning on the armed struggle and Israeli aggression Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples (2004) book, Not the Enemy - Israel’s Jews from Arab Carmen Gray is a New Zealand-born writer, including The Fifth War (1979, with Samir and The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (2007). He Lands (2009) received a National Jewish Book based in London. Since 2007, her film criticism Nimr), Born Out of Death (1981), and Why? founded and directed the Academic Institute award. She was shortlisted for the 2011 Orwell and interviews have appeared in publications (1982, with Samir Nimr). She now lives in Italy for Peace at Givat Haviva, in Israel from 1992 to journalism prize and won the 2011 Anna Lindh including Sight & Sound, Total Film, Dazed & and is working on a film re-examining this 2000, and was Chair of the Emil Tuma Institute prize for reporting across cultures. (see p. 13) Confused, Little White Lies and Under/current. revolutionary era. (see p. 12) for Palestine Studies in Haifa from 2000 to 2006. She has a special interest in the cinemas of (see p. 15) Abbas Shiblak is a writer, campaigner, central and eastern Europe and has served on Karma Nabulsi is Fellow in Politics at and academic specialising on questions the juries of international film festivals, including St Edmund Hall, Oxford, and lecturer in the Marco Pasquini is a filmmaker and of Palestinian displacement, diasporic Berlin and Moscow. A selection of Carmen’s Department of Politics and International camera operator who has worked extensively communities, and refugee rights. He is a film writing can be viewed on her webpage: Relations, Oxford University. She was a PLO in international TV production as well as founder of the Palestinian Refugee and cargocollective.com/carmengray (see p. 10) representative from 1977-90, working in independent documentary-making. After Diaspora Centre (Shaml) in Ramallah, and Beirut, Tunis, and the UK. She is the author of several years documenting the Roma and has published widely on refugee and diaspora Mike Hoolboom is a Canadian artist Traditions of War: Occupation, Resistance and Sinti in Italy, he moved to Beirut and made a questions, including with his Palestinian working in film and video. His works have the Law (Oxford University Press, 2005) and string of critically acclaimed documentaries Communities in Europe (2005). He is presently won more than thirty international prizes writes on the philosophy and ethics of war, including R-Existance: Women from the South Research Associate at the Refugee Study and two lifetime achievement awards; he has the laws of war, European political history and (2006) and Gaza Hospital (2009), which won Centre, Oxford University. (see p. 24) been honoured with twelve international theory, and Palestinian history and politics. the International Press Golden Globe award for retrospectives of his work. Mike is winner of the Karma has been patron of the London Palestine best Italian documentary in 2010. In 2011, Marco Ella Habiba Shohat is Professor of Bell Award for Video Art (2009) and the Tom Film Festival since 2008. (see p. 9) relocated to Cairo, where he is now working on Cultural Studies and Middle Eastern studies Berner Award for community service. (see p. 17) new film and radio projects.(see p. 12) at New York University. Since the 1980s, she Maysoon Pachachi is a London-based has lectured and written extensively on Laleh Khalili is senior lecturer in the filmmaker of Iraqi origin. She has made Christopher Pinney is an anthropologist Eurocentrism, Orientalism, Postcolonialism, Politics of the Modern Middle East at the nine documentaries, including the prize- and art historian. He is Professor of transnationalism, and diasporic cultures. Her School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), winning Iranian Journey (2000) and Bitter Anthropology and Visual Culture at University many books and essay collections include 32 33 School of Oriental and African Studies • University of London

festival speakers brief biographies SOAS

Israeli Cinema: East/West and the Politics of films include Izkor: Slaves of Memory (1990); Language Representation (1989, new edition 2010); and The Specialist (1999), Route 181: Fragments of a Taboo Memories, Diasporic Voices (2006). She Journey in Palestine/Israel (with Michel Khleifi, is the editor of Talking Visions: Multicultural 2004); and Jaffa: The Orange’s Clockwork Feminism in a Transnational Age (1998) and (2009). (see pp. 22-23) co-author with Robert Stam of Unthinking Eurocentrism (1994); Multiculturalism, Sameh Zoabi grew up in Iksal, a village Centre Postcoloniality and Transnational near Nazareth. After studying at Tel Aviv Media (2003); Flagging Patriotism: Crises University, he won a scholarship to undertake • Modern Standard Arabic • Quranic Arabic of Narcissism and Anti-Americanism postgraduate training in Film Direction at (2007); and Race in Translation: Culture Wars Columbia University’s School of the Arts. around the Postcolonial Atlantic (2012). (see p. His short Be Quiet went on to win plaudits • Colloquial Egyptian • Modern Hebrew 20, pp.22-23) at Cannes and Sameh was named one of the “Top 25 New Faces of Independent Cinema” Arabic Eyal Sivan is a writer, documentary in 2005. Man Without a Cell Phone, his debut • Biblical Hebrew filmmaker and Israeli dissident whose award- feature, won the Golden Antigone at the 2011 winning work since the 1980s has addressed Montpellier Film Festival. Sameh is completing • Levantine Arabic the politics of memory, representation, and post-production on his second feature film. • Experienced power in the Palestine-Israel conflict. His many (see pp. 9-10) • Gulf Arabic native-speaker teachers

SOAS Language Centre School of Oriental and African Studies University of London, Thornhaugh Street Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG Tel: +44 (0)20 7898 4888 Fax: +44 (0)20 7898 4889 E-mail: [email protected]

34 www.soaslanguagecentre.com

5901 Language Centre A5 ad.indd 1 23/02/2012 11:08 THE INSIDE STORY MAP films provide an insight into the lives of ordinary Palestinians who have been living under occupation and as refugees for over sixty years. The overriding image is one of strength and resilience of people in an unjust world. Our films tell the stories of individuals struggling to safeguard their health in a harsh environment presented in a way rarely seen on screens in the UK. We work with talented filmmakers and rely on the generous support that dozens of people have given to help produce powerful films. PACES uses sports activities to drive positive change in the lives of marginalized Palestinian girls and boys. Our WATCH OUR FILMS program offers boys an alternative to being idle, on the streets, and exposed to potential violence and extremism, Watch ‘Life or Death: Medical Referrals from Gaza’, ‘The Silent War: Israel’s Blockade of Gaza’, and we help empower girls to reach their full potential. ‘Life in the Shadows: Palestinians in Lebanon’ and many more on YouTube or on MAP’s website. www.youtube.com/MedicalAidPalestine www.map.org.uk/films

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Medical Aid for Palestinians works for the health and dignity of Palestinians living under occupation and as refugees. Charity No. 1045315 Tickets for screenings at the Barbican: Old Street

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